Twitter is a social networking tool that enable users send a maximum of one hundred and forty character messages also known as tweets to their followers. It is the third largest social networking site in the globe behind MySpace and Facebook. Twitter users enjoy quite a lot the remarkable networking as well as resource sharing capability of Twitter. Today, the education sector is thinking about ways to harness the potential of Twitter as a learning tool.
Real-time communication and interaction
By having your students as well as their parents follow you on Twitter, you can talk to them in real-time to sustain clear and regular communication. You can use Twitter to share class news, from test times, homework to parents meetings or any form of information out to the students and parents. The social feature of Twitter offers various ways to interact with students and obtain instant feedback on lectures, examinations, course materials and other topics. As a teacher, do not restrict your students to just reading content that is on the course outline. Use Twitter to share fascinating online material that your students can relate to in terms of their education experiences.
Networking and research work with #Hashtags
Twitter hash tags, a theme with the # icon, function to spread, organize and search for data on Twitter. Your students can easily network with fellow students across the globe thanks to these hashtags. In order to keep classroom tweets structured, you can create shared classroom #hashtags for discussions on various subjects. On the other hand, students can also look for hashtags for different research projects, evaluate trends and so on.
The Twitter Backchannel
It is quite remarkable the potential of the twitter backchannel to produce unique, lively and engaging lessons. Teachers can make use of hashtags to build a twitter backchannel during class lectures, demonstrations and presentation. Students can question, react, post or comment anything on the class Twitter account and their posts will come out on the presentation display in real time. In addition, students can react to comments from their fellow students or to the teacher’s presentation. The backchannel talks actually help create educational conversations and provide a database of reciprocated learning experience.
Projects
As a teacher, you can create an internet community of learners or students through Twitter. In fact, Twitter is a fantastic tool for forging camaraderie among learners and assisting them to work in one collectively, especially on projects. Students can work together or in partnership on research projects using applications such as Tweetworks which enables users to form groups to enhance better communication. Twitter allows teachers to engage learners in research projects in fascinating ways. The possibilities are infinite.
Analyzing students’ understanding
Teachers can pose periodic questions on lesson subjects by posting them on their Twitter feeds to get learners thinking. When these twitter quizzes are incorporated with rewards, teachers can rest assured that students will be book warmers. Additionally, teachers can make use of twitter direct message, private messages or the Twitter backchannel to gage the understanding of students on a certain topic or subject. Twitter’s precise nature makes it perfect for after-class conversations-140 character conversations are short and straight to the point.
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